Why You Feel Drained (a Different Take) | Iyanla Vanzant
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.6 • 3.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stop outsourcing your peace. Feeling better is an inside job.
We often feel exhausted, not because life is so difficult (which it can be), but because our minds are full of old wounds, unresolved feelings, self-destructive stories, and subconscious rules that secretly run the show…and leave us empty. In this episode, Jonathan sits down with acclaimed spiritual teacher and 19-time bestselling author, Iyanla Vanzant, to explore a radically practical idea: spiritual hygiene.
Drawing from her new book Spiritual Hygiene: A Practical Path for Clean Living, Inner Authority, and Divine Freedom, Iyanla offers a grounded, compassionate framework for clearing emotional residue, reclaiming inner authority, and tending to your inner life with the same care you give your outer one.
In this episode, discover:
• The hidden inner rulers like fear, shame, and unforgiveness that quietly shape behavior, identity, and decision making.
• Why we feel spiritually congested, and how constant reliance on external fixes keeps us disconnected from our own inner power.
• What spiritual hygiene actually looks like as a daily practice, not a belief system, and why small, consistent acts matter more than dramatic breakthroughs.
• How to reclaim inner authority without fixing, forcing, or bypassing pain, and why presence is often more powerful than effort.
• A gentler path to healing that does not require perfection, years of struggle, or becoming someone new before you begin.
This is a conversation about cleaning from the inside out. About creating space for clarity, honesty, and peace. And about remembering that your inner life is not something to outsource, avoid, or conquer, but something to care for with intention and respect.
You can find Iyanla at: Website | Instagram | Episode Transcript
If you LOVED this episode, you’ll also love the conversations we had with Thema Bryant about healing trauma and reclaiming your true self.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So we often feel exhausted, not because life is so difficult, but because our minds are full of |
| 0:05.4 | old wounds, unresolved feelings, self-destructive stories, and subconscious rules that just |
| 0:11.4 | secretly run the show and leave us empty. Today I'm sitting down with Ian LeVanzand, |
| 0:17.4 | the New York Times bestselling author of 19 books with more than 10 million copies sold |
| 0:22.4 | and the host and executive producer of the television series, Ionla Fix My Life. |
| 0:27.6 | Her newest book is titled Spiritual Hygiene, and we're exploring a radically practical idea. |
| 0:33.9 | We talk about really daily simple habits and practices that help clear emotional residue, |
| 0:40.6 | how unseen inner rulers like fear and shame shape our choices, and how to reclaim inner |
| 0:46.9 | authority without fixing or forcing what hurts. |
| 0:50.2 | We also explore why so many of us feel spiritually congested and what it really takes to clean from the inside out in a way that's gentle, honest, and sustainable. |
| 1:03.1 | If you've ever sensed that something inside feels crowded or noisy, even when it looks fine on the outside, This conversation offers a different way in, one that |
| 1:12.7 | restores clarity and agency and peace by listening more deeply to what is already there. So excited |
| 1:20.9 | to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life Project. |
| 1:30.2 | I realize that you and I have an interesting shared background. |
| 1:34.0 | In very past lives, we apparently both went to law school in New York in the late 80s, |
| 1:41.4 | practiced for about three years. |
| 1:43.2 | I think you were in the Philly Public Defender's |
| 1:45.0 | office. I was actually at the SEC in New York. Okay. And then had this awakening that said, |
| 1:50.0 | maybe this isn't the right path for me. So I'm really curious, what happened for you in that time |
| 1:56.4 | that kind of made you say, this just isn't right for me? Yeah. Well, I was doing criminal law. So I was in and out of |
| 2:03.6 | jail every single day. And I learned that I think the prison or jail is the one place on the |
| 2:13.7 | planet where there is no love. There's not a frequency of love. There's not a vibration |
... |
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